Monday, May 26, 2008

Moeraki Bolders and Wanaka

Early in the morning, around 10:00AM, we woke up with cricks in our necks scrounging around to find a source of caffeinated beverage. Coffee.....? Caffeine, done! Now on to the Moeraki boulders! The town of Moeraki is famous for these giant granite boulders that are firmly set in a small stretch of sand along the coast line.

These boulders are mammoths, and almost perfectly spherical in shape. I could actually fit inside this one. The interesting phenomenon is that they are only found on a short stretch of the beach, and that over time, the seas have polished them into their current shape. I reckon that the seas must have been a bit angrier several thousands of years ago to move these behemoths.
From Moeraki, we traveled up to Omaru, a historically preserved town with heaps of charm. We stumbled upon a whiskey maker in town and went on a tour through the barrel house. That was sort of the highlight of the visit to Omaru, but there were a lot of antique shops and boutique art galleries to keep us busy for a while.
It was now time to fast track across Central Otago to the west coast of the South Island heading toward the mountains again. We stayed that night in Wanaka, a popular water skiing and snow skiing area just before you enter into glacier land.
The lake and waterfront area were great, and the town was charming. The weather was nice enough that we decided to stay another day and go on a hike up to Roy's peak to get a panoramic view of the Lake Wanaka and mountains that surround it.

Again we woke up early, sometime after 10:00Am, and started our trek. No, that is not the peak that I have so proudly conquered in the picture above......that was just the beginning...

The hike up to Roy's peak was spectacular,.... spectacularly excruciating on the legs. There were no flat portions to this hike, in fact, there were no soft grades to the trail at all, it was flat out hands on knees hiking the whole 2.5 hours to the summit. But you can't beat the views can you?
We packed a lunch that we quickly scarfed down as soon as we arrived at the summit. Denise was getting our bearings and pointing out what everything was around us. That is Wanaka township behind her.
Directly opposite of Wanaka on the other side of Roy's peak was the great beyond, snow capped mountains and blue sky.What's that saying, 'with great effort comes great reward?' This hike tested out that theory, and proved that our struggle to get to the top of the mountain was well worth the spectacular views. The trip down however seemed to be just as hard on the legs, and the only reward at the bottom of the mountain was to climb into our stinky camper van...........

1 comment:

Melissa Ann Browning said...

Hey guys - I just read all the postings from bungee jumping forward - what AMAZING pictures! You guys have seen some truly exquisite places. Love the narrative, too :)

The last posting was from May - it's now June 20th - where are you guys?

can't wait to hear what's been going on this month & to see you in Ohio (yeah!),

Much love, Melissa